Newtown High Cross Country Teams Compete In SWC Championships

By Andy Hutchison

BETHEL — Newtown High School’s boys’ and girls’ cross country team members laced up their running shoes and took on their rivals in the South-West Conference Championships at Bethel High on October 21. The NHS boys finished third and the girls placed fourth on the approximate 5K course, which the runners said was 2.96 miles, just short of an official 3.1-mile 5K.

The boys, after an undefeated regular season, had their sights set on a title but could not dethrone defending champion New Milford. The Nighthawks finished behind champion New Milford and runner-up Pomperaug of Southbury. New Milford scored 54 points, Pomperaug had 62, and NHS had 66 — easily topping fourth-place Brookfield (102).

Newtown had three of the top ten finishers, led by Jake Feinstein in fourth place in a time of 15:50.95, and the back-to-back finish in sixth and seventh by Pat Sullivan (16:19.51) and Dieter Gutbrod (16:25.49). Brookfield’s Spencer Mannion (15:30.41) won the race. The boys’ race featured 13 schools and 86 runners.

“Our goal coming in was to win as a team and take the SWC title away from New Milford, but New Milford ran strong,” Feinstein said.

Boys’ Coach Dave Foss said he was thrilled with the performances of his top three runners and added that the rest of his top-seven, whose times are factored into the race scoring, did not fare as well as they usually do.

“The guys wanted to win and we thought we had a good shot at it — so definitely a little disappointing,” Foss said of the outcome.

So will this motivate the boys to have a stronger performance in the state championships during the final weekend of October?

“I hope so — we’ll see. We’ve got seven strong runners, so we’ll see what we can do,” the coach said.

The girls’ team scored 80 points to finish behind champion New Milford (60), Pomperaug (64), and Immaculate of Danbury (77). Like the boys, the girls easily outran the next-fastest competitor, as Oxford placed fifth with 146 points among 14 schools and 96 runners.

Newtown was paced by fourth-place finisher Anne Martino, who crossed the finish line in a time of 19:06.55. Teammate Erin Begg also cracked the top ten with a ninth-place finish in 19:34.37. Pomperaug’s Brittany Mendelson won the race in a time of 18:38.13.

The Newtown girls were pleased with their times and finishing fourth was just a matter of the other schools’ runners also stepping it up in the big meet.

“We’re exactly where we need to be today,” said Doug Russell, coach of the NHS girls, adding that he was thrilled with his team member’s runs.

“It could not have gone much better than it did,” Martino added.